It informs a discussion of damage and armor systems. We know that strikes inflict between 20J (average person with a knife) and ~350J (professional baseball player with two handed grip, world record boxer) of kinetic energy. Typical break points include:

Light Knife, Underhand: 20-50J

Punches and Overhanded Strikes by strong people: 100-121J

One handed Weapons: On order of 40-130J

Two Handed Weapons: On order of 100-305J

Light Bows: 50J

Long Bows: 100J

Heavy Long Bows: 140J

Armors likewise protect against varying penetrating blows:

Padded: 20-50J (stacks with other armors)

Leather: 30J

Chain Mail: 80J

1mm Plate: 55J (reasonable typical for lightly armored areas)

2mm Plate: 175J (minimum for breastplates, helms)

Signficant Flesh Penetration: ~30J

Slashing blows are about half as effective when defeating armor.

Those numbers are all rather large, so let's divide them by a common denominator, say, 25J, to get something more usable.

Interestingly, those numbers look a lot like usable numbers for damage rolls in a gaming context, do they not? As a caveat, most of those damage numbers are high-end maximums (if only one number is given). Most are also for penetrating force. A slashing blow can do a more damage, but is less effective against armor by about half.

Strength Modifiers: From the data on olympic boxers, we also have the data that each standard deviation adds or subtracts +1 (25J). Now, olympic boxers are already above the bell curve, likely at least two standard deviations, but it is a reasonable modifier.

*As an optional rule, two handed weapons deal 1d6 (perhaps 1d6+1) damage as well but all strength modifiers are doubled.

Slashing weapons and strikes: Roll one extra damage die and retain best against unarmored targets; roll one extra die and retain the worst against targets in chain or plate mail.

Bludgeoning weapons and strikes: Bludgeons always do "bruising" damage, not lethal damage, but ignore the "soak" of armor.

Armor:

Armor mitigates incoming damage. Characters select either to wear a helmet and either full or half armor. Full armor protects the torso and extremities. Half armor protects only the torso, like a breastplate or coat of mail.

Characters may layer lighter protection for extremities (such as greaves for legs and gauntlets for hands) as desired with half armor. For example, you could choose a steel breastplate for the torso and leather gauntlets/leggings for the extremities.

Cloth padded armor may be layered with any other type for more protection.

Cloth: Soak 1

Leather: Soak 1

Light Plate: Soak 2

Chain Mail: Soak 3

Medium Plate: Soak 7

Heavy Plate: Soak 12

With this system there are several checks:

Attacker checks "to hit." This is based on defender's agility.

If there is a hit, defender gets to "save" and see if their armor helped out. Roll 1d6:

If the damage roll is less than the "soak," the defender takes a bruising hit.

If the damage roll is greater than the "soak," the defender takes a lethal wound.

Extra Damage:

Hits against the head and torso result in +1 Wound (i.e. two wounds).

If no armor is worn, a damage roll of >=5 also results in +1 Wound.

If armor is worn, a damage roll that exceeds the soak value of the armor by >=5 also results in +1 Wound.

Cover: The "save" system above also factors cover into effect. Decide what part of the body is protected by cover and negate hits to that area. For example, a low stone wall covering half of a warrior's body would protect against any roll of 4-6.

If a character can no longer take bruising hits, then all future "bruises" become lethal wounds. This represents a badly battered character having ribs cracked, suffering concussion, and other serious and life-threatening wounds.

The wounds and damage system needs some work, but it could be ok. As an alternative, you could simply use the damage and soak values as is, subtract the "soak" rating from the incoming damage, and use normal D&D hit points.